The present invention relates to telephony and in particular to a method and apparatus for allowing a subscriber placed on hold during a communication connection to send a message to another subscriber prior to tearminating the communication connection. The present invention also relates to a method and apparatus for allowing a subscriber to signify to another subscriber their desire to return to a communication connection when the communication connection has been placed on hold.
Feature telephone sets which provide a display of the status of calls such as on hold status provide only limited information to a subscriber as to the status of calls. For example, a telephone set used in a key telephone system may have several lines that it may use. When one of the lines is busy, a light adjacent a push button associated with that line illuminates. However, there is no indication that the line is actually in use or who are the parties in the call.
If a caller has placed a call on one line on hold and has made one or more calls on other lines which may have also been placed on hold, lights associated with the lines on hold may flash as a reminder. However, there is no indication as to who is actually on hold. It is often difficult to remember which call on hold belongs to which party. The end result is that calls may be retrieved from hold and the party addressed incorrectly.
When a conference call is made and several conferences are placed on hold and a subscriber wishes to have a private conversation with one or more of the conferences while excluding others, mistakes can often be made with sometimes embarrassing and costly results when taking conferences off hold and bringing them into the private conversation.
To overcome the above-described problems, a human machine interface for telephone feature invocation has been developed and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,110 to Pinard et al. issued on Jul. 2, 1996 and assigned to Mitel Corporation, assignee of the present invention. The human machine interface provides information to a user which unambiguously indicates which subscribers are party to a call. The human machine interface also provides a clear indication as to the parties placed on hold, removed from a call or added to a call.
In some instances, when a subscriber is placed on hold by another subscriber, the subscriber may wish to terminate the call but before doing so send a message to the other subscriber. In the past, this has required the subscriber to terminate the call, call the other subscriber back, wait to be forwarded to the other subscriber""s voice-mail, leave a voice-mail message and then terminate the call. Also, in some instances, when a subscriber has been placed an on hold condition, a subscriber may wish to signify to the other subscriber that they wish to be reconnected. This has not been possible, giving the subscriber the options of either waiting out the on-hold condition or terminating the call and calling the other subscriber back in an attempt to reestablish the communication connection.
Although the human machine interface referred to above provides unambiguous information concerning the parties to a call and the status of the parties to the call, call hold improvements are desired to deal with the above described situations.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for allowing a subscriber placed on hold during a communication connection to send a message to another subscriber prior to terminating the communication connection. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for allowing a subscriber to signify to another subscriber their desire to return to a communication connection when the communication connection has been placed on hold.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided in a communication system wherein a communication connection is established between a communication apparatus of a first subscriber and a communication apparatus of a second subscriber, a method of terminating the communication connection by a subscriber placed on hold comprising the steps of:
(i) displaying to said on hold subscriber a prompt to leave a message;
(ii) in response to selection of said prompt, recording the message left by said on hold subscriber;
(iii) transmitting the message to the other subscriber; and
(iv) terminating the communication connection.
In one embodiment, it is preferred that the method further comprises the step of providing a visual indication to the other subscriber that the communication connection has been terminated by the on hold subscriber and that the on hold subscriber has sent a message. It is also preferred that the method further comprises the steps of during the communication connection displaying icons representing the subscribers to both subscribers; and upon termination of the communication connection at step (iv), replacing the icon displayed to the other subscriber representing the on hold subscriber with an icon representing the message. Preferably, the prompt to leave a message is displayed to the on hold subscriber in response to on hold subscriber input.
It is also preferred that during step (ii) the on hold subscriber can record either a voice message, a text message or a video message. A window is displayed to the on hold subscriber which includes a box for a text message, a box for a voice message and a box for a video message. One of the boxes can be selected to allow the on hold subscriber to leave either the voice message, text message or video message.
Preferably, the method further comprises the step of presenting the message to the other subscriber as soon as the other subscriber returns to the communication connection.
In another embodiment, the prompt to leave a message is displayed to the on hold subscriber as soon as the on hold subscriber is placed on hold. The prompt is selected by entering a soft key sequence via the communication apparatus of the on hold subscriber.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided in a communication system wherein a communication connection is established between a communication apparatus of a first subscriber and a communication apparatus of a second subscriber, a method of signifying one of the subscribers desire to return to a communication connection when said communication connection has been placed on hold comprising the steps of:
(i) generating a reconnection request via the communication apparatus of one subscriber;
(ii) transmitting the reconnection request to the other subscriber; and
(iii) displaying the reconnection request to the other subscriber signifying the one subscribers desire to return to the communication connection.
Preferably, during step (iii) a reestablish communication connection icon is displayed to the other subscriber, and the method further comprises the step of reestablishing the communication connection immediately upon selection of the reestablish communication connection icon. It is also preferred that during step (ii) at least one deny communication connection icon is displayed to the other subscriber and that the method further comprises the steps of transmitting a deny communication connection response to the one subscriber upon selection of the at least one deny communication connection icon and displaying a message to the one subscriber signifying the selection.
Preferably, the method further comprises the steps of during the communication connection, displaying icons representing the first and second subscribers to both subscribers; during an on hold condition displaying to the one subscriber their icon as a ghost and displaying to the other subscriber their icon as a ghost; and generating the reconnection request in response to subscriber input made by selecting a ghost icon.
The present invention provides advantages in that a subscriber placed on hold can send a message to the other subscriber prior to terminating the call avoiding the need to call the other subscriber back to leave a message. The other subscriber is notified that the call has been terminated and that a message has been sent putting that subscriber in immediate context for the message. The present invention also provides advantages in that a subscriber on hold can signal to the other subscriber that they wish to return to a communication connection even though the on hold condition exists.